Registration will give you access to additional features not available to guest users such as definable avatar images, private messaging, access to member-only sections, etc. It only takes a few moments to register so it is recommended you do so.

If you do not check the Log me in automatically box when you login, the board will only keep you logged in for a preset time. This prevents misuse of your account by anyone else. To stay logged in, check the box during login. This is not recommended if you access the board from a shared computer, e.g. library, Internet cafe, university computer lab, etc.

Within your User Control Panel, under "Board preferences", you will find the option Hide your online status. Enable this option with Yes and you will only appear to the administrators, moderators, and yourself. You will be counted as a hidden user.

The passwords are encrypted so while your password cannot be retrieved, it can easily be reset. Visit the login page and click I’ve forgotten my password. Follow the instructions and you should be able to log in again shortly.

This message forum requires new registrations to be activated by yourself via a link sent to you by email. If you were sent an e-mail, follow the instructions. If you did not receive an e-mail, you may have provided an incorrect e-mail address or the e-mail may have been picked up by a spam filer. If you are sure the e-mail address you provided is correct, try contacting an administrator.

If you specified being under 13 years old during registration, you will have to follow the instructions you received by email.

COPPA, or the Child Online Privacy and Protection Act of 1998, is a law in the United States requiring websites which can potentially collect information from minors under the age of 13 to have written parental consent or some other method of legal guardian acknowledgment, allowing the collection of personally identifiable information from a minor under the age of 13.

Because this message forum requires valid email addresses for account registration to reduce spam bots and potential user abuse, COPPA must be followed.

COPPA can not be bypassed. If you register an account and then register another account in an attempt to bypass the parental permission form, every account you register will be banned until the COPPA form has been submitted.

Any user who is under the age of 13 and does not have a COPPA agreement on file will receive an account ban.

"Delete all board cookies" deletes the cookies created by this message forum which keep you authenticated and logged into the board. It also provides functions such as read tracking if they have been enabled by the board owner. If you are having log in or log out problems, deleting board cookies may help.

General, basic courtesy towards other users of the online forum is expected for all those who post new topics and replies. Posts containing abusive or topics of a harassment nature will be locked and the poster will be warned if the poster is a registered user; if an anonymous user, the poster' IP will be blocked for a to-be-determined period based on the severity of the posted content.

Generally there will not be any problems with users on the forum, but there are a few things that will cause your account to be disabled without warning:

Physical or verbal threats against another user

Sharing login information

Making multiple accounts

Non-Fogu web site solicitations with referral links

Flooding the forum with posts in a short amount of time

Reaching 3 warnings in 90 days

Plagiarism or taking credit for other people's work

Asking for information on where to download illegal games, programs, etc.

Posting inappropriate content (such as pornographic images or any content that might make another user feel uncomfortable)

User Preferences and settings

» How do I change my settings?

If you are a registered user, all your settings are stored in the board database. To alter them, visit your User Control Panel; a link can usually be found at the top of board pages. This system will allow you to change all your settings and preferences.

It is possible the time displayed is from a timezone different from the one you are in. If this is the case, visit your User Control Panel and change your timezone to match your particular area, e.g. London, Paris, New York, Sydney, etc. Please note that changing the timezone, like most settings, can only be done by registered users. If you are not registered, this is a good time to do so.

If you are sure you have set the timezone and Summer Time/DST correctly and the time is still incorrect, then the time stored on the server clock is incorrect. Please notify an administrator to correct the problem.

An avatar is a personal image you can add to appear below your registered username. To set your avatar, go into your User Control Panel, go to Profile, and click on Edit Avatar. You can upload your own avatar, link to an avatar on another website, or choose from pre-built avatars in the Gallery.

Ranks, which appear below your username, indicate the number of posts you have made or identify certain users, e.g. moderators and administrators. In general, you cannot directly change the wording of any board ranks. Please do not abuse the board by posting unnecessarily just to increase your rank.

Your rank will automatically change as you post to the Harvest Moon sections of the forum. The Back Fence, Webpage Comments, Posting Games, and Other Games sections do not increase your post count and rank when you use them.

Users who have reached 2000 posts will be given the privilege of changing the color of their post backgrounds. They may also change the color of their text so it does not conflict with their chosen background color.

If you want to change your registered user name, send a Private Message to Cherubae, the board administrator. Permitted user name changes include changing case, spacing, typos, and other minor grammar updates.

If you want to completely change your name to something new or different, you will need to have your account disabled so you can reuse your email address to create a new account. Your rank and post count will not transfer to your new account.

Posting Issues

» How do I post a topic in a forum section?

To post a new topic in a forum, click the New Topic button on either the forum or topic screens. You do not need to register before you can post a message asking for Harvest Moon help, but you do need to register if you want access to the Back Fence, Chat, or Posting Games sections.

Unless you are a board administrator or moderator, you can only edit or delete your own posts. You can edit a post by clicking the edit button for the relevant post. If someone has already replied to the post, you will find a small piece of text output below the post when you return to the topic which lists the number of times you edited it along with the date and time. This will only appear if someone has made a reply; it will not appear if a moderator or administrator edited the post, though they may leave a note as to why they’ve edited the post at their own digression. Please note that normal users cannot delete a post once someone has replied.

To add a signature to a post you must first create one via your User Control Panel. Once created, you can check the Attach a signature box on the posting form to add your signature. You can also add a signature by default to all your posts by checking the appropriate radio button in your profile. If you do so, you can still prevent a signature being added to individual posts by un-checking the add signature box within the posting form.

Signature areas are limited to prevent users having massive, page-long signature files. Your signature area is 250 pixels in height.

When posting a new topic or editing the first post of a topic, click the “Poll creation” tab below the main posting form; if you cannot see this, you do not have appropriate permissions to create polls. Enter a title and at least two options in the appropriate fields, making sure each option is on a separate line in the textarea. You can also set the number of options users may select during voting under “Options per user”, a time limit in days for the poll (0 for infinite duration) and lastly the option to allow users to amend their votes.

As with posts, polls can only be edited by the original poster, a moderator, or the administrator. To edit a poll, click to edit the first post in the topic; this always has the poll associated with it. If no one has cast a vote, users can delete the poll or edit any poll option. However, if members have already placed votes, only moderators or administrators can edit or delete it. This prevents the poll’s options from being changed mid-way through a poll.

You may receive a warning if you did not follow the posting guidelines (see Why was my post locked?) as well as for the following reasons:

Posting a topic as an anonymous user with the intent of causing distress to the other members, such as "so and so sucks" or "harvest moon is for lame people". You look even more foolish when you log back into your account and reply to your own topic, stating how you disagree with the anonymous person. We can tell it is you.

Breaking the "10 day rule" by replying to a topic that is older than 10 days, which brings it back to the "live" discussions and confuses other board users.

General rudeness and mistreatment of other users. Just because you can’t physically see the person, you don’t have the right to treat them as though they don’t exist.

If the board administrator has allowed it, you should see a button for reporting posts next to the post you wish to report. Clicking this will walk you through the steps necessary to report the post. The button will be an exclamation point under the avatar picture on each post: [!]

Posting a new topic that only contains your web site URL is not appropriate, but you are more then welcome to place your web site URL inside of your signature file. Then it will appear in every post you make.

If someone asks for another web site to find more Harvest Moon help, there are no issues with posting URLs to other fan sites with relevant information. As long as the poster gets the assistance he or she needs then the topic has been successful.

No. This forum is hosted in the United States, where the use of R4 cards and other like items are not legal. While this forum does allow people from all countries to post, discussion of rewritable cartridges for game consoles is not appropriate. If a user mentions they are using a device to illegally play video games (Harvest Moon or otherwise), the account will be banned.

This is also not the forum to use for help using your emulator. If you are posting questions on how to get a game to work with your program, your account will be banned.

Asking where to download illegal copies of video games is not permitted on this forum. If you ask where to download a game, your account will be BANNED. Supplying information on where to download illegal copies of video games will receive the same treatment.

- Past the 10-day window: Topics are considered completed if no one has responded to it within 10 days of the last post. If you "bump" a topic that is past the 10 day grace period the topic will be locked, and you will most likely receive a warning.

- Asking for others to play your game: If you don't have the ability to make your own decisions and must ask the other forum members who you should marry, what to name your cows, etc., the topic will be locked. The game's adventure is for you to decide and no one else.

- Topic strays from the original post: When someone posts a topic and the conversation commences, if it begins to stray from the original topic the post might become locked.

- Decision about game purchase: Spending your own money on games is your decision to make. Asking other members whether you should or should not purchase something is not for them to decide. It's your own money and each person's opinion will vary. Do your own research and then choose for yourself.

- Game emulation and downloads: Topics asking where to acquire illegal versions of any video game or other software, will be locked. The topic creator's account will be banned.

The UNoT forum can be very active, especially during the time period when new Harvest Moon games are released. Topics that have not been replied to in 10 day or longer are considered to be "finish" and no new replies are required. If you bring an old topic back among the active topics, it causes confusion for other users who are trying to get help, especially since topics over 10 days are usually no longer relevant.

If you bump an old topic back to the active list of topics then you will receive a warning. If you continue to reactivate old topics then your account will be banned.

Each post has a last-post time assigned to it. If you are having a difficult time understanding the default time stamp, you can go into your User Control Panel, go to the Board Settings area, and change the My Date Format to something that works better for you.

» What is a « Snúggly Bunny », « What The Eggplant », and other strange words?

When an offensive word is typed into a post, the forum word filter will replace the word with something more comical. The replaced word will have a set of marks around it (« ») so you can easily tell that the topic author felt the need be unimaginative with expressing his or her opinions. Occasionally, new words will be added to the word filter and you can not see a list of existing filtered words.

If you try to bypass the word filter by replacing characters with other characters (e.g. a "o" becomes a "0"), add periods to separate the questionable word’s letters, or other techniques to make the word un-filtered, you will be given a warning. If you continue to bypass the word filter then your account will be banned.

Most account users can turn off their word filter. To check to see if you can turn it off, go into your User Control Panel -> Board Preferences -> Edit Display Options. If you can turn off the filter, you will see an option labeled "Enable word censoring". Change the "yes" to "no" and then click Submit at the bottom of the settings page.

AR codes and their uses are perfectly acceptable. The AR device is not illegal (unlike the R4 and other flash cartridges) and asking about codes is allowable. Granted, you may receive replies to your topic from other users indicating that you are taking the fun out of the game, but that is one of the downsides to cheating. If you don't know what AR codes are or how to use them, then please read this Wikipedia article. The UNoT forum users are not here to teach you how to use your cheat device.

Formatting and Topic Types

» What is BBCode?

BBCode is a special implementation of HTML, offering great formatting control on particular objects in a post. The use of BBCode is granted by the administrator, but it can also be disabled on a per post basis from the posting form. BBCode itself is similar in style to HTML, but tags are enclosed in square brackets [ and ] rather than < and >. For more information on BBCode see the guide which can be accessed from the posting page.

Smilies, or Emoticons, are small images which can be used to express a feeling using a short code, e.g. :) denotes happy, while :( denotes sad. The full list of emoticons can be seen in the posting form. Try not to overuse smilies, however, as they can quickly render a post unreadable and a moderator may edit them out or remove the post altogether. The board administrator may also have set a limit to the number of smilies you may use within a post.

Announcements often contain important information for the forum you are currently reading and you should read them whenever possible. Announcements appear at the top of every page in the forum to which they are posted.

Locked topics are topics where users can no longer reply and any poll it contained was automatically ended. Topics may be locked for many reasons and were set this way by either the forum moderator or board administrator.

Topic icons are author chosen images associated with posts to indicate their content. Topic icons are used in the All Other Harvest Moon section to help distinguish what version of Harvest Moon the topic is about.

User Levels

» What are Moderators?

Moderators are individuals (or groups of individuals) who look after the forums from day to day. They have the authority to edit or delete posts and lock, unlock, move, delete and split topics in the forum they moderate. Generally, moderators are present to prevent users from going off-topic or posting abusive or offensive material.

Forum moderators are a highly select group of individuals that have been in forum attendance for years, and have proven to be obviously older and more mature than a normal forum user. UNoT moderator privileges are not just handed out to anyone because they ask. Basically, you can not be a moderator and please do not ask if you can.

Private Messaging

» I cannot send private messages!

There are three reasons for this; you are not registered and/or not logged on, the board administrator has disabled private messaging for the entire board, or the board administrator has prevented you from sending messages. Contact a board administrator for more information.

You can block a user from sending you private messages by using message rules within your User Control Panel. If you are receiving abusive private messages from a particular user, inform a board administrator; they have the power to prevent a user from sending private messages.

Friends and Foes

» What are my Friends and Foes lists?

You can use these lists to organize other members of the board. Members added to your friends list will be listed within your User Control Panel for quick access to see their online status and to send them private messages. Subject to template support, posts from these users may also be highlighted. If you add a user to your foes list, any posts they make will be hidden by default.

You can add users to your list in two ways. Within each user’s profile, there is a link to add them to either your Friend or Foe list. Alternatively, from your User Control Panel, you can directly add users by entering their member name. You may also remove users from your list using the same page.

Searching the Forums

» How can I search a forum or forums?

Enter a search term in the search box located on the index, forum or topic pages. Advanced search can be accessed by clicking the “Advance Search” link which is available on all pages on the forum. How to access the search may depend on the style used.

Your own posts can be retrieved either by clicking the “Search user’s posts” within the User Control Panel or via your own profile page. To search for your topics, use the Advanced search page and fill in the various options appropriately.

Topic Subscriptions and Bookmarks

» What is the difference between bookmarking and subscribing?

Bookmarking is much like bookmarking in your web browser. You aren’t alerted when there’s an update, but you can come back to the topic later. Subscribing, however, will notify you when there is an update to the topic or forum on the board via your preferred method or methods.

To subscribe to a specific forum, click the “Subscribe forum” link upon entering the forum. To subscribe to a topic, reply to the topic with the subscribe checkbox checked or click the “Subscribe topic” link within the topic itself.

phpBB 3 Issues

» Who wrote this bulletin board?

This software (in its unmodified form) is produced, released and is copyright phpBB Group. It is made available under the GNU General Public License and may be freely distributed. See the link for more details.

This software was written by and licensed through phpBB Group. If you believe a feature needs to be added please visit the phpBB Ideas Centre, where you can upvote existing ideas or suggest new features.

» Who do I contact about abusive and/or legal matters related to this board?

Any of the administrators listed on the “The team” page should be an appropriate point of contact for your complaints. Please note that the phpBB Group has absolutely no jurisdiction and cannot in any way be held liable over how, where or by whom this board is used. Do not contact the phpBB Group in relation to any legal (cease and desist, liable, defamatory comment, etc.) matter not directly related to the phpBB.com website or the discrete software of phpBB itself. If you do e-mail phpBB Group about any third party use of this software then you should expect a terse response or no response at all.